Monday, July 04, 2005

Russia will equip Iranian submarines

Russia recently showed off its submarine building capabilities at the Second International Naval Show in St. Petersburg. Some of the models presented included Projekt 677 "Lada", which the state company Admiralty Shipyards is finishing for the Russian Navy, the export version of this sub - Projekt 1650 "Amur" - that was offered to India for sale, Projekt 877EKM and the modernized version of Projekt 636 that are being sold to India and China.

A Russian export company is negotiating with Iran about repair and modernization of Iranian submarines. "What Iranian submarines?", you may be asking. Dow Jones Newswires: "Iran Tuesday officially launched the production of its first locally built submarine, a craft capable of operating stealthily, state-run television reported. Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Imani was quoted as saying 'the enemy would not be able to detect the submarine.' He did not elaborate. Mark in Mexico, however, has an exclusive surveillance photo of the secret sub and it is easy to see why it cannot be detected in the ocean (click on photo to enlarge). It's operating in the desert. The name of the submarine in Persian is the "Ghadir", pronounced in English as "gotter" (as in, "We gotter find some water."). The Russian project is codenamed Projekt OU8A Spiceworm.

The Russian company doing the repair and modernization says that "all the major components that have already exceeded their life expectancy will be replaced, such as keel, hull, props, engines, hatches and crew."